Trust
by Ruby Rosetta Red
Summary: Clark is in a lab in Metropolis. Anna Vale has to rescue him. The character of Anna Vale is mine. Mild TC. Written early s4.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Smallville and all its associated characters belong to the relevant people. I just love to write about them.

**Chapter One:**

They seemed to gain a special kind of pleasure just from hearing him scream. She watched them as they used kryptonite to peel the skin from his bones, gather tissue samples to scrutinise beneath their high powered microscopes, extract blood, bone marrow, anything that they wanted. It was gruesome, nightmarish and she took a silent deep breath, swallowing against the rising bile in her stomach. As always, she wrote the necessary information down whilst remaining in the background. She was so unobtrusive that they tended to forget about her and that was exactly how she preferred it. She observed and she detailed down information, information that would be expected to be compiled into a concise detailed report as soon as possible and this she did. All the while her brain catalogued an entirely different story.

She was the only one left in the room now. She walked towards him. He was tethered to a long metal table, the manacles around his wrists and ankles infused with an eerie green glow. Kryptonite, his one weakness. They weren't stupid enough to give him too much, just enough to make him compliant enough to allow them to carry out their experimentation. She knew and they knew that the radiation had to be slowly killing him. The rock glowed in his presence; it's radioactive properties activating something, proteins maybe, in his blood. A big enough single dose would kill him. She looked at his face and saw the drying tear tracks out of the corner of each eye. They were closed, his face partially turned towards her but she couldn't miss the greyish pallor that blemished his face, nor the dark shadows bruised beneath his eyes. He was tall, powerfully built with long legs, broad shoulders and arms all corded with what was once thick muscle. She imagined that at full strength he would be quite an intimidating sight to behold. She looked down at the length of his body and she frowned at the marks their experiments had left on him – cuts, bruises, and grazes. There were old scars there that were slow to heal from past research. It looked barbaric. The skin around the manacles that held him were the worst; the skin was red raw, burned and bleeding. She took a deeper breath this time and went to fill a bowl with warm water. Using some discarded gauze, she set about to try and clean his injuries. The water quickly turned red, but she worked on, quickly and efficiently. She wished that she could just whisk him out of here but for now this was all that she could offer him. She tried to make his wrist wounds more comfortable, smoothed some antiseptic lotion she'd found into them and she wondered whether he was aware of what she was doing or even if it would work. She touched his long fingers and felt them move slowly around hers. It startled her and then saddened her, he barely had the strength to respond, but he had done all the same.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

"What do you think you're doing?" the loud voice startled her. She gasped and took a step back, abruptly releasing her hold on his fingers. She looked up and saw Richard Graham, the team leader standing by the door, watching her.

"I was just saving the clean up crew some time" she replied in a quiet voice.

"That's not your job," he reminded her coldly.

"Maybe not, but I was curious about the subject" Graham came to stand beside her. He looked down at him.

"He's certainly unique. His skin is almost invulnerable. Heat, extreme cold, pain, nothing affects him. The only thing that does seems to be the green meteor rock" he indicated the manacles, staring pensively at him. She nodded. Green meteor rock, they didn't even know what it was called.

"How much more of this do you think he'll be able to withstand?" she enquired.

"Until we're satisfied. He's a treasure trove of information; his bodily make up is nothing like we've seen before. We have great plans for him" he announced with satisfaction.

"It doesn't bother you that he's obviously somebody's son? That there will be people out there who love him and are looking for him?"

"He isn't human Miss Vale. How could he be with all that he is capable of doing? How could something like that…exist and be classed as human?" his voice was heavy with scorn and she had to bite her tongue from delivering a blistering response and remember why she was on this team in the first place.

"He has a brain, a heartbeat, he walks and he talks, so I'm assuming that he has thoughts, memories, ideas and may even possess a conscience?" Richard Graham turned his full attention onto her, looking down on her as if she was an inconsequential nobody.

"You assume too much Miss Vale. If this project is beginning to affect you then it wouldn't be a problem to have you replaced," he threatened icily. She just stared up at him.

"I don't have a problem with anything Dr. Graham," she answered.

The institute was silent. She let herself out of her closet sized office and quietly closed the door behind her. She cast a furtive look up at the surveillance camera. She walked along the corridor. She didn't know the exact time but she knew it was late; everyone had gone home for the day. The only people left would be cleaning and security staff. She hugged her clipboard to her chest and ignored the nervous fluttering in the pit of her stomach. She knew where Clark was sequestered and was glad that she'd been given clearance to access him in his cell. For all intents and purposes she was just conducting further research. There was a security guard posted outside and she flashed him her security pass. He barely glanced at it and didn't even watch as she unlocked the heavily armoured door and open it. She slipped inside, locking it behind her. Automatically she looked up. Weak green light filtered from the light fitting that she also knew doubled up as a camera. Again, it wasn't strong enough to completely incapacitate him, but enough to keep him subdued.

She walked towards him. He lay on a mattress on the floor, his back to her and facing the wall. For a long few seconds she just looked at him.

"Clark?" she kept her voice as low as she possibly could. He had extra sensitive hearing, she knew that he could hear her but he didn't react. She crouched down beside him and reached out and laid a hand on his bare shoulder. She felt the muscle tense beneath her fingertips.

"You don't know me, but my name is Anna" she murmured. Gently she rolled him onto his back and looked at him. He didn't react. His wrists, as always were manacled, the chain fastened to the wall. She looked down at the fresh wounds scored into his skin, the memories of his screams reverberating through her brain. She sighed quietly, picked up her clipboard and began to write.

Anna. The name whispered through his brain like an incantation. His saviour was called Anna. These days his head was so pain filled, his eyes so heavy that the days passed around him in a blur. The pain all merged into one, flooding inside of him in fiery brutal waves. They all watched him, noted down his reactions on their little clipboards, finding pleasure in his suffering. Those early days he'd hoped to find an ally, someone, anyone who could help him, who would take pity on a boy undergoing torturous deeds but nothing, nothing prickled their cast iron consciences. They fed off his torment like vultures circling a dying animal. And then there was Anna. He caught glimpses of her from beneath heavy eyelids, fleeting glances. Her touch had been so gentle, it had reminded him of his mom. Grief filled him, its iron like grip tightening on his soul; he wanted his mom.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

Of course there would be someone awake at the Foundation. Anna swore that they never slept. The legacy of Dr. Virgil Swann. She parked her car outside of the entrance and got out. She stood for a second and inhaled the air deeply and wondered how long it would be until Clark could do the same. She tightened her grip on her leather briefcase and went inside. She crossed the cavernous lobby, the heels of her shoes clicking on the Italian marble. She was used to the silence of the place, it was blessed after what she'd witnessed today.

"Nobody followed you?" Anna stopped dead in her tracks as Dr. Brigette Crosby, Dr Swann's successor appeared in the doorway. Anna looked at her.

"They never follow me" Dr. Crosby regarded her.

"Complacency doesn't suit you my dear," she responded and Anna could barely contain a sigh.

"Nobody followed me Dr. Crosby, I made sure of it"

"I knew that, I was just making absolutely sure" and she turned and began to walk along the corridor towards her suite of offices. Anna didn't need to be told to follow; she just did.

The outer offices were closed. Desks were empty, machines were silent. Anna followed Dr. Crosby into her own office. It was a huge room with equally huge windows that allowed sunlight to pour through in the daytime. Dr. Crosby's huge desk dominated the office and it was piled high with files and documents that demanded her attention. A tray of coffee found its own space in the organised chaos and she looked at Anna enquiringly. She nodded gratefully.

"Sit down Anna," she invited and watched her sink into one of the chairs opposite her, placing her briefcase carefully by her feet. Anna watched Dr. Crosby pour black coffee into a plain white cup and hand it to her. She curled her fingers around it, welcoming its heat.

"You've had a tough day today" Dr. Crosby guessed, sitting in her own seat behind the desk. Anna took a sip of her coffee and then nodded.

"They're animals, all of them. I've seen some things in my time but this…this was a special kind of barbarity" she kept her voice low but her eyes were filled with memories.

"If it's too hard Anna, it wouldn't be a problem to pull you out of there, nobody would blame you" Anna seemed to click back to the present. She fixed her boss with a steely look.

"I can't leave him there alone now. Whether he realises it or not, he needs me"

"Does he realise that?" the doctor enquired. Anna remembered the way he'd tried to curl his fingers around hers. She shook her head.

"He's barely conscious most of the time. I think when they start he goes somewhere else in his mind. But today… he cried, asked for his mother" unexpected tears crowded the backs of her eyes and she took a deep, deep breath as she regained control.

"Anna…"

"Don't you dare take me out of there. I can do this, I will get him out of there" she vowed. The doctor observed her over her own coffee cup and silence ticked between them for two or three seconds.

"All right Anna, as always, I have faith in you" Anna sighed in another deep breath.

"I want those reports," the doctor continued and Anna nodded. She stood up and carried her coffee cup into the outer office. She sat at one of the vacant desks and switched on the computer and set to work. Dr. Crosby came out a couple of hours later to see her working steadily, her fingers flying over the keyboard. There were no notes by the keyboard for her to refer to, which was one of the things she most admired about her, it all came from memory.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four:**

Anna managed to get some sleep back in her small box-like apartment. After leaving the Institute in the early hours she was careful to make sure that she wasn't followed to her apartment. The cat and mouse part of her job was almost second nature to her. Her confrontation with Dr. Graham sat slightly uneasily with her. He was a smart man and she wondered whether he was suspicious about her outburst. She hoped not, her ability to blend anonymously in the background was essential. Dr. Crosby was almost ready for the mission. Just a few more days she'd said and everything would go like clockwork and Clark would be free. She just wondered whether Clark would be able to survive. She remembered him lying strapped on the table in the lab. She remembered the looks on the scientists' faces when they realised how impervious to harm he was. That was before the introduction of the kryptonite. They'd been like little boys at Christmas then, watching wide-eyed as probes entered his skin, pushing through muscle, drilling into bone. His screams for mercy had gone ignored.

She followed the team into the laboratory and saw Clark strapped to a chair this time. His head was forward, as if too heavy for his neck, his chin on his chest, his eyes closed. She resumed her position at the back of the room, her clipboard at the ready, observing as always. She watched Dr. Graham enter the lab, a heavy looking black box in his hands. She watched him place it on the metal table that Clark was normally strapped to. He then walked to Clark and stood in front of him and the smug expression on his face irritated Anna.

"Well now Clark. It's about time to see what it is you're really capable of" he announced to him. Clark gave no indication that he'd heard him. The doctor went back to the box and picked it up again. He walked towards him. Anna watched him carefully and the glint in the doctor's eyes made her uncomfortable. She wondered what was inside of the box; the way Dr. Graham held onto it made her think that it was something extraordinary, a treasure of some sort. She watched him open the box and the change in Clark was instantaneous.

His whole body stiffened, his head snapped back and his eyes opened and widened. It was as though an electric current had been blasted through him. Anna watched Doctor Graham lift out a crystal, it was a deep red shade, almost purplish in hue and it glowed in all its violent glory. Anna took a half step forward, her attention focused entirely on Clark and his reaction to the crystal. Another type of Kryptonite? It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. And Clark's reaction to it was alarming. His breathing changed, becoming more laboured, almost hyper-ventilating. Carefully Anna worked her way through the crowd of curious scientists, all watching the goings-on with avid curiosity. She stopped once she could get to see Clark's face more clearly and saw that his eyes seemed to be glowing a weird deep amethyst hue. Every muscle in his body strained against his constraints and Anna got the impression that he was trying everything to get away from the rock's influence. There was the sound of metal being ripped from metal and she realised with wide eyes that he was breaking free of the bonds that chained him to the chair. Her heart began to hammer in her chest. The other scientists also realised what was happening and began to scatter, trying to get out of Clark's path. Anna was frozen to the spot as Clark sent furniture sailing across the room. He screamed, holding his head still with those horrible purple irises. Belatedly Doctor Graham realised that Clark wasn't under the influence of the green meteor rock, so awe struck he had been by the sudden change in personality of his subject. The manacles were in pieces on the floor.

All of a sudden alarms were blaring and the team were running for the door, all trying to avoid Clark and his path of destruction. Still Anna couldn't move. She watched him head straight for her. He grabbed her by her upper arms and all of a sudden she was flying through the air. She crashed against a wall and fell down, hitting a bench and landing in a crumpled heap on the floor, too dazed to move. She tried to breathe, her entire body racked with white-hot pain. She slowly raised her head and saw him coming towards her, still raging and it was then she realised that she was alone in the room with him. Everyone was gone, the door was closed. Clark grabbed her arms and hauled her upwards. She was utterly at his mercy and her feet were at least a foot off the ground, hanging in mid-air.

"Clark… Clark… don't hurt me," she whispered frantically. He looked at her, frowning.

"Please…don't hurt me" she could feel blood sliding down the side of her face and Clark was staring at her in some kind of fascination.

"Let me help you… it hurts doesn't it? Worse than the green rock… it hurts," he continued to look at her, his chest was heaving with exertion.

"Put me down Clark… the guards will be here soon… put me down" she told him. Amazingly he did that, and then collapsed. Anna stared at him, shock warring with amazement. Then she spotted the purple rock on the floor less than ten feet away from him, still glowing. She scrambled towards it. The box it had been contained in was beside a cabinet. She made her way towards it, dropping the rock into it and closing the lid. It was a lead box and weighed a ton. The silence was deafening. She turned from her kneeling position and saw that Clark hadn't moved. She scrambled towards him amidst the debris. His eyes were closed.

"Clark?" he didn't respond. She smoothed a lock of his hair away from his face. His eyes were closed. She looked up as she heard running footsteps. She looked back at Clark. Quickly she lowered her head.

"Trust me," she whispered to him before the door was slammed open and guards swarmed through, armed to the teeth with green meteor rock infused tranquilliser guns. One of them dragged Anna away from him and she watched, as he was cuffed again with fresh manacles and hauled, unconscious back to his cell.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five:**

She was still trying to digest what exactly had happened whilst a nurse dealt with the cut above her left eyebrow. Her shirt and lab coat were ruined but they were the last thing on her mind. What the hell had caused Clark to react just like that? The Foundation were up to date with the various types of kryptonite, in that there were only three known to them so far, red, green and black, so what was this purple kryptonite? She looked up as her door opened and Doctor Graham entered. Fresh anger welled up inside of Anna when she saw him. The nurse paused long enough to place a band-aid over the cut and make a quick get away. Anna glared at the doctor.

"What the hell just happened in there?" she demanded.

"Are you okay?" Anna got to her feet.

"I am now. Bruised and battered but I'll survive. You didn't answer my question. What the hell did you do to him in that lab?" Dr. Graham smiled secretively.

"It's just something I've been working on for a little while. I just wanted to experiment," he explained.

"And it almost got me killed. He was in a homicidal rage, he was going to kill me and you all just left me in there to let him!" she yelled.

"But he didn't and that was interesting" Anna sighed in defeat.

"It hurt him Doctor Graham, whatever that rock was, it caused him a lot of pain and that was what he was reacting to" the doctor regarded her curiously.

"How did you know it was hurting him?" Anna rolled her eyes.

"Observation Dr. Graham plain and simple. So tell me, what was in that rock to make him go crazy like that?" Dr. Graham looked at her, not sure whether to divulge his secret.

"We amalgamated the green meteor rock with the red, added a little something…" he shrugged.

"And decided to use me as a battering ram. Well, thank you very much" she turned and tried not to wince at the pain in her side. She had at least two cracked ribs and she'd be a patchwork of bruises in the morning.

"That wasn't intentional. He didn't hurt you Anna and that was very interesting, to be in a psychotic rage and not harm you"

"Uhh, in case you forgot, he threw me clean across the laboratory, my ribs are testament to that" she reminded him.

"But he went back to you…" she swung around, deliberately ignoring the pain in her side this time.

"You saw him do that? You actually observed him doing that?" her voice rose in fury. He had the grace to look a little embarrassed.

"All in the name of science Miss Vale," he replied with a guilty little shrug.

She paid another nocturnal visit before her trip to the Foundation. She had a pounding headache and her ribs ached fiercely. The guard at his door barely gave her a second glance as she let herself into Clark's cell. She locked it behind her and ventured in.

Clark was sitting up against one wall. His arms were strung out to either side of him in those hated manacles. His head was slumped forwards; chin resting on chest yet again. For a second Anna just looked at him, the image of him under that purple kryptonite still extremely vivid. She edged towards him. He seemed to be either sleeping or unconscious. Taking a deep breath, Anna grasped his chin and gently tilted his head upwards. She gasped. There were fresh bruises on his skin; dried blood matted the hair at his temple.

"God Clark, what else did they do to you?" she whispered and picked up her clipboard.

I didn't mean to hurt you Anna. He wanted to tell her that but he was so weak now that he couldn't lift his head or react to his surroundings. He felt dead inside, utterly numb. What had happened in the laboratory had been beyond even his comprehension. Red kryptonite caused him to lose all conscience, green could kill him, black tore him in two then rejoined him but this one seemed to do all of those. Warring energies within the stone had created a warring personality inside of him, that seemed hell-bent on destruction, of himself and those around him, and that had included Anna. The agony of the new kryptonite had been unreal, vibrating through him like a lightning bolt but more virulent, it had clawed at his brain, tore at the neurons leaving him screaming for release. Then he'd heard her voice and stopped. They had been alone in the lab, alarms screaming loudly enough to rival the throbbing in his own head and amidst all the chaos, she had asked him to trust her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:**

"What in God's name happened to you?" Dr. Crosby did nothing to hide the shock in her voice.

"This is the result of Clark being under the influence of another type of Kryptonite, a man made amalgam"

"Another kryptonite? How?" she watched Anna carefully place her briefcase onto a desk.

"They combined the green with the red, added a little something and it was a very dark red, almost purple colour"

"And what happened?" Anna sighed slowly.

"It's all in my report but Clark went psychotic. The green kryptonite caused him a lot of pain still but coupled with the red and what that does to him, it wasn't very pretty. He trashed up the laboratory pretty good"

"And you too it would seem" despite herself, Anna smiled.

"Me too, but I'll survive. What worried me was how quickly this new kryptonite overloaded his system. He had maybe five, ten minutes of this intense, overpowering rage and then he collapsed, even without the constraints of the green k manacles, he went out like a light" she frowned.

"That doesn't sound good at all" Anna looked at her.

"We need to get him out of there immediately. I've got a feeling that Dr. Graham is going to work on that purple kryptonite a bit more, to what ends, I'm not sure but I'm not happy with it" Dr. Crosby regarded her.

"It takes time to gather a team capable enough to get inside the institute and get him in there"

"If you wait any longer then it'll be a body salvage. Trust me, he needs to get out now!" her voice rose with frustration. Dr. Crosby raised her hands.

"I understand Anna"

" No you don't. You haven't seen him in there, you haven't seen the condition that he's in or heard him cry for his mother. He's on the verge of adulthood and he's crying for his mother! What does that tell you?" she clenched her fists.

"It's telling me that you're way too involved in this Anna and I think it would be a good idea to take you off this case" Briefly Anna closed her eyes as frustration turned to anger.

"And what will that accomplish? It won't get him out any faster and there is no guarantee that you'll get a replacement in there in time" she retaliated.

**The following day...**

She knew that she was the object of curiosity as she walked along the corridor. She had the beginnings of a black eye and the cut above her eye stung. She'd had a pounding headache for most of the night and as a result she wasn't a hundred per cent at her best but she couldn't leave Clark alone. She felt as though he needed her, relied on her.

"I didn't expect to see you this morning" Anna paused when she heard Dr. Graham's voice. She slowly turned to look at him.

"And why shouldn't I be here today?" she enquired coolly.

"Have you looked in the mirror?" his voice had an almost scandalised tone to it and it was all she could do not to roll her eyes.

"I have. It's not a problem." She assured him. The doctor gave her a clipboard and she looked down at it.

"You need to check on the subject before we look at him again" he told her. She looked at him.

"What happened to the usual person?"

"Called in sick. He's all yours" Anna looked down at the notes made from previous sessions. The statistics weren't looking good.

"What's the matter Miss Vale, you're not scared of him, are you?" Anna looked up at him.

"No…I'm not, which makes me wonder…are you?" she responded. Dr. Graham straightened and his eyes narrowed. Mentally Anna cursed herself. She drew the clipboard closer to her chest.

"I'll get onto it immediately."

To her surprise, he wasn't manacled. He lay on the thin filthy mattress that they'd provided for him, his back to her. As habit dictated, she looked up to the security fixture, now seeing the beady little red light that told her that she was being observed. She placed her clipboard on the floor and knelt down beside Clark. She placed her hand on his shoulder, this time the muscle didn't tense, didn't react. When she pulled him so that he would roll over, he did so immediately. His eyes were closed. She did a quick visual check, tried to ignore the bruising, the slow to heal wounds. She placed a finger against the pulse in his throat, noting the sluggish throb. There was a bruise at his temple, the blood she'd discovered there was dried and matted in. He'd lost weight, the skin pulled taut over high cheekbones, his lips pale and bloodless, were beginning to flake and peel.

Slipping away. He could feel it happen. Poisoned, sick, dying. Then she was there, Anna. Too late he wanted to tell her, you're too late. Can't take anymore. She was whispering his name, touched his neck. One last slice of emotion, different from the agony… he thought of his mom and his dad, he thought of his friends and a single tear slipped down one cheek. Time to go….


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven:**

Suddenly the lights went out. At the same time, the tiny pager that she kept hidden vibrated against the skin against her upper thigh, a signal that she'd been preparing herself for. Dr. Crosby's team were finally assembled and they were about to come in. Her heart jumped as adrenaline slowly began to flow through her. It was finally happening. Her eyes quickly became acclimatised to the deep darkness, the green glow from the light fitting the only illumination. No doubt the security camera was equipped with infrared vision. Then alarms began to blare. Anna looked down at Clark. They would be here soon and it would all be over. She turned her head as the cell door slammed open and at the same time emergency generators began to kick in, flooding the room with weaker light than before. Instead of seeing Dr. Crosby's rescue team, she saw that it was Richard Graham and his team and they seemed frantic to get Clark out of there. Anna quickly looked back at Clark. Instinctively she knew that he wouldn't, couldn't survive another experiment. She felt Richard Graham grab her arm and haul her to her feet. She was slammed up against the wall and she gasped as her breath whooshed out of her. She tried to straighten up but his arm against her chest prevented her from doing so. She frowned.

"What's going on?" she choked, pulling air into starving lungs.

"This is all your doing!" he hissed, so close that spittle flecked her face. She clenched her fists as anger rose but instead frowned.

"What is all my doing? What are you talking about?"

"Didn't you think I'd realise? That I wouldn't know who you were really working for? You've been interested in this specimen ever since he arrived here, you were assigned to my team for a purpose and I think I know why," he turned his head and looked down at Clark briefly before returning his attention to her. His expression remained accusatory.

"You won't succeed, he's mine, I won't let you take him from me!" he sounded like a recalcitrant child being separated from a favoured toy.

"What you're doing is wrong, you're slowly killing him, and for what purpose?" she demanded, deciding to drop the pretence.

"I just do as I'm told Miss Vale. Just like you do," It was Anna's turn to frown.

"Which makes me wonder who you're working for? Anyone we know?"

"Someone very powerful, someone you don't say no to" he responded. Anna could hear doors slamming, running footsteps. It sounded like utter bedlam was breaking out and she needed to get Clark to relative safety. Something slammed against the cell door, catching Dr. Graham by surprise. Anna realised her opportunity and she used her body weight to push herself away from the wall. The movement caught him unaware and he fell backwards. Anna ran towards Clark. As she did, she crouched down and picked up her clipboard, using it as a weapon to hit Dr. Graham with all her might as he lunged towards her. He went down.

"Don't make me hit you again," she yelled. He stayed down and in that moment people were pouring through the door into the cell. Anna watched the craziness ensue as the scientists battled to get out of the cell, Dr. Graham included. She used the opportunity to go to Clark, to pull him with all her might to a semi reclined position against her body and she wrapped her arms around him protectively. He slumped against her.

She didn't recognise any of them but they identified themselves as being the team that Dr. Crosby had arranged. They certainly knew who she was. It was only then that she released her hold on Clark and allowed him to be loaded onto a gurney.

"Could someone please do me a favour?" she asked as one of the men helped her to her feet. She pointed to the light fitting still glowing with a weak green light.

"Someone please destroy that?" And she watched as her request was carried out.

She stood beside the gurney and watched him being strapped in. Someone had placed a blanket over him, a red one at that. She watched him, watched as consciousness began to claim him. He groaned quietly.

"Clark? Can you hear me?" she asked him and despite the sound of the alarms still going off, he turned his head and slowly opened his eyes. They were a vivid blue colour.

"You…?" his voice was weak; it took all of his strength to form the words.

"I'm Anna, Clark, you're going to be okay now," she assured him and watched as he was whisked away.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight:**

She stood in Dr. Crosby's office and watched her flip through her final report. Eventually she closed the folder and looked up at her.

" I know you're curious about Clark," she said eventually. Anna shrugged, ignoring the jump in her pulse at the mention of his name.

"How is he doing?" she asked eventually. Dr. Crosby sat back in her seat.

"He's doing well. He responded to treatment quickly even though we were initially worried about what damage the prolonged exposure to the green kryptonite would do to him. It took him longer to heal than normal but he did. To look at him, you wouldn't think he'd been through what he has, there isn't a scratch on him now," there was a brief silence as Anna absorbed the information, secretly gladdened that he'd come through it all so well.

"He's also asked to see you. I've tried to stall him but he's insisting that he does," she saw the nervousness in Anna's stance. The younger woman shook her head.

"I don't think that would be a good idea," she responded and Dr. Crosby tilted her head to one side and regarded her.

"Why not? It's not as though you haven't seen your past clients before," Anna sighed.

"I know, but this time it's a little different,"

"Because you like him?" Again Anna responded with a slight shrug.

" I saw what they did to him, I bore witness to what they did to him and I was powerless to stop them," She watched Dr. Crosby get to her feet.

"Clark doesn't blame you for that, nobody does" Anna watched her walk around her to the door. She opened it and looked out.

"You can come in now Clark," she said and Anna started. She spun around and saw him walk through the door, past Dr. Crosby. She looked at them both.

"I'll leave you to talk in private," she told them and closed the door behind her on her way out.

Anna could only stare at Clark in dumbfounded shock. Here he stood, tall and proud in jeans and a white t-shirt. She realised that she'd been right in her summation that he would make an imposing sight and he did. He had the whole world at his feet, had the abilities to do just that and here he stood in front of her, just looking at her with those blue eyes, which, right now looked more green than blue.

"You're Anna" It wasn't even a question, and she was mildly surprised at how quiet his voice was. She just nodded. He walked towards her and stopped a few feet away.

"I remember you," her eyes widened.

"You were kind to me, I remember you told me to trust you and I did,"

For a moment she couldn't respond, surprised that he'd even remember anything.

"You do? You remember that?" his eyes fixed on her face.

" I remember you used to come into where they kept me and you'd talk to me. Your voice was really quiet but just the way you talked to me, I knew you were there to help me," Anna sat down on one of the chairs as his words left her legs weak, her senses reeling. He sat down opposite her.

"You saved my life," she looked at him and smiled weakly.

"I helped. I was part of the team, that's all." She replied. There was a short silence. She looked at him, his high cheekbones, glossy dark hair that was in need of a trim but something told her that he preferred the way it curled at the ends. He was the picture of health as Dr. Crosby had told her.

"Do you remember much of what happened to you?" she asked eventually. He looked at her.

"I remember the pain most of all, it never seemed to end," she wanted to reach forwards and touch him.

"I'm sorry that they did that to you, that they hurt you. You didn't deserve that kind of torture," And that she couldn't do anything to stop it. That part went unspoken.

" I just want to know why, that's all" a small frown marred his brow.

"Dr. Graham wouldn't talk, they still don't know," at Clark's enquiring look she sighed quietly.

"He was found dead in his cell, they think that whomever he was protecting, got to him, though, of course, there's no proof of that," Clark sighed raggedly and frowned.

"Everyone here knows about you Clark, your abilities aren't a secret here but everyone is sworn to secrecy because at the end of the day their task here is to help you to understand and come to terms with your origins and your role in life here. I can only assume that someone else saw what you could do for themselves or had enough information to be curious. Someone with huge influence" she explained. Clark listened to her as she spoke, allowed the words to be absorbed. It had always been a possibility thatit would happen one day.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine:**

The peace and quiet of Smallville was welcoming. Clark enjoyed it for its simplicity, allowed his mother to mollycoddle him after what he'd been through. They had asked what they'd done in that lab and he'd told them what he thought they could handle, but not all of it. They'd shouldered so much of this since his arrival years ago and he felt that they hadn't needed to know the entire story. Anna Vale still occupied his thoughts now and again. She'd come from nowhere to save him, like a guardian angel almost. He'd tried to call the Foundation to talk to her a couple of times since their meeting only to be told that she was working and was unavailable. There were still some unanswered questions, like who'd been behind his kidnap and the experimentation and how Anna had known where he was in the first place.

"Clark. Someone to see you," his mother's voice was a quiet interruption and he looked up from his book to see Chloe beside his mother. He smiled his welcome, closing the book and getting to his feet. Chloe had been someone else he called, had mentioned Anna's name and she had promised to look into her for him, if nothing else then to assuage his curiosity about her.

Clark and Chloe hugged. She looked up at him, a small frown marring her forehead and he smiled gently.

"I'm okay Chlo', I promise," he assured her.

"How could you be? I thought the prolonged exposure to the kryptonite would be enough to kill you…" It still gave him pause that Chloe knew his secret and most importantly that she accepted him regardless.

"Apparently they kept the levels low enough so that it made me sick but that's all"

"Any long term effects?"

"Not that they're aware of, so quit worrying. Do you have any information on Anna?" Chloe gave him a look as she unhooked the strap of her bag from her shoulder and opened it. She took out a manila folder and gave it to him.

"Not a great deal to be truthful. She's from Smallville believe it or not and when the meteors struck, the farm where she lived with her parents took a direct hit. She survived and was raised by other family. And like all the others affected by the meteors, Anna apparently had a photographic memory, so couple that with high intelligence and you can imagine the possibilities."

"What happened to her after graduation?"

"That's where information becomes a little hazy. No one knows for sure, some say she went into Metropolis to work, others say she went into more…covert operations…" Clark stared at her in disbelief.

"Working for the government? Somehow I don't think so," Chloe just shrugged.

"Hey, it's all supposition and you met her. Did she look like the secret agent type, assuming there is an actual type?" Clark shook his head.

"I remember there was a farm not far from here that got a direct hit from the strike," Martha interrupted, carrying cups of coffee for them both. Clark looked at her.

"You do? You've never mentioned that before…" Martha rolled her eyes.

"Because you've never asked. The entire family were wiped out. If there was a child there we never knew because they kept themselves to themselves,"

"The Vales could've been neighbours?" Martha looked at him.

"They weren't called Vale." She took the file from her son and flipped through the information given. She nodded.

"That's definitely the farm. I think their name was Miller, maybe Vale was the name of the relatives she was placed with?" she returned the file to him. Clark shrugged and sighed.

"Maybe,"

"Here's a theory, maybe she flew onto Dr. Swann's radar? Like I said, intelligence coupled with a photographic memory…" Chloe left the rest of the sentence hanging. And it made sense somewhat to Clark.

"You were gone for two months Clark. Enough time to allow Anna to infiltrate the Institute and gain access to you, it's a possibility" she added. He looked at her as she placed a hand on his arm.

"She played a part in freeing you Clark, why don't you just let it be and accept it?" she suggested.

-

-

**Epilogue:**

Anna stood in the cemetery and looked at the huge mausoleum that held the remains of her uncle, the man who had taken her in after the meteor strike. He'd been incapable of being physically involved in her upbringing but he had hired a team of nannies and other such people to make sure that she received the best care possible. Their connection was never made public, considering who he was and how much he was worth, financially and otherwise. Her name was different, she hadn't lived with him but he was the man who'd recognised the gift she'd acquired after the meteor strike and helped her to come to terms with it. He was the one who had entrusted her with Clark's secret and on his deathbed had made her promise to keep a watchful eye over him. And she had.

"I kept my promise Uncle Virgil. He's safe for now," she told him. She looked at the white marble crypt and wished that he was there in front of her so that she could see his face again, hear his voice one last time. Instead she took a deep, cleansing breath, turned and slowly left the cemetery.

**END.**


End file.
